Madagascar court upholds presidential candidacies

ANTANANARIVO

The electoral court in Madagascar Wednesday confirmed three controversial candidacies for presidential polls slated to end a four-year political deadlock on the island.

The court rejected pleas by the prime minister and the armed forces to exclude current strongman Andry Rajoelina, his top rival's wife and a former president from the race, as demanded by the international community.

"The requests are declared inadmissible," the court said in a statement, adding its "judgements, opinions and decisions... are not subject to any appeal."

Prime Minister Omer Beriziky made the appeal Monday along with the armed forces and other commissions tasked with supervising the country's planned return to democracy.

Polls scheduled for July 24 look set for delay over a paucity of funding and lack of consensus over the candidates list.

The Indian Ocean island has been in political limbo since Rajoelina, a former disc jockey and ex-mayor of the capital Antananarivo, seized power from then-president Marc Ravalomanana in 2009.

According to an internationally brokered roadmap aimed at steering the nation back to constitutional rule, neither politician should take part in new elections.

But when Ravalomanana's businesswoman wife Lalao announced she would run, Rajoelina declared his candidacy as well.

Both candidacies pose a legal problem, since he applied after the deadline and she had not lived on the island six months prior to the nominations, as the rules require.

Lalao and her husband had been exiled in South Africa since the coup, and authorities had blocked several efforts by the couple to return to Madagascar, saying their return could spark unrest.

But the former first lady was allowed back into the country on March 12 to be with her seriously ill 83-year-old mother, and five weeks later, she filed her papers to run for president.

Another candidate, former president Didier Ratsiraka, filed his papers two days after he returned from 11 years of exile in France.

Earlier Wednesday the envoy for the regional bloc mediating the standoff, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said the international community would "withdraw from the process" if the law was broken.